Feels Like Home To Me
by lotsofsunshine
Summary: The story is set after 7x01 and describes a conversation between Hotch and Emily dealing with the situation after Emily's return and more. Enjoy. Please note: First fanfic


**Author's****note: As said in the summary, it's my first fanfic. I have to admit that my punctuation sucks. Sorry for that. Some parts are a little bit bumpy and I hope that I'm not OCC. Hope you'll enjoy it anyway.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own the show or the characters. All rights to CBS.**

A conversation between Hotch and Emily, set after 7x01.

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><p>There was a knock on his office door that pulled Hotch out of his musings. He had been thinking about the recent events and all those decisions that had lead to where his team now stood. They were lucky that Prentiss had been able to convince the senator that the team was indeed that - a team- and not some kamikaze operation.<p>

Looking at the door, he saw the one person that had cost them all so much but also gave them back what they had lost 7 month ago. Emily Prentiss. He was relieved that she was back, lifting the burden of keeping the secret of her survival off his and JJ's shoulders.

"Prentiss, come in. Please, have a seat." Aaron said, rubbing his eyes. Emily, while walking in and making herself comfortable, looked at him with soft eyes. "It's been a rough past few weeks, huh?" Hotch looked at her tiredly but nevertheless managed a small smile. "Not just weeks, month." With that said, they looked at each other knowingly. Not just the fake death of Emily had wrecked havoc on the team. Reducing the team members, dealing with finding Doyle and him being send into the middle east had taken its toll on all of them. But now it seemed that everything would go back to how it was before. _Hopefully_, Hotch thought.

Emily couldn't yet grasp what had happened during the past weeks. Being back where she belonged still felt like it could be snatched from her any time she might close her eyes for too long. She was happy to see all her team members, although she knew that the next few weeks would probably be as exhausting as the previous ones. Morgan, who was still pissed at Hotch for keeping this to himself. Reid, who never got the chance to say goodbye. Rossi, who still tried to get her picture off of that wall of fallen agents. And Garcia, who had taken care of Sergio, always being the sunshine that she so desperately needed in her life right now.

But there were also Hotch and JJ, bearing the burden of knowing she was out there somewhere without being able to tell anyone. She would never be able to thank those two enough for their strength.

"I…I just wanted to thank you for keeping up with all of this," she gestured to the conference room, where the team was still sitting together. "I know, that it must have been difficult for JJ…and you." "There is nothing to thank me for Emily. You know that I made this decision to protect you and that it was never about the safety of the team, or Morgan for that matter.": Aaron explained with a hint of a smirk. Emily had to smile. She had missed the light banter and truth be told the glances they gave each other now and then. "You know," she began with a suddenly more serious look on her face, watching the team through his office window,"for me it was always about the safety of the team. Not about mine." Turning her head back to Hotch she tried to gauge his reaction. She could see a slight flicker of emotion cross his face, but his mask fell back into place way to quickly and the beard, although pretty good looking, didn't allow for her to interpret it. "The first time I met Doyle after he got out of prison, I told him that I would kill him if he would ever set his mind to harming anyone of you…Oh, and I did this whilst leveling my glock at his crotch." Aaron had to bite back a smile. _That's my …urgh our girl_, he thought. "But still Prentiss, you could have asked for help." He was aware of the fact that she just tried to protect them from being dragged into her mess, but he couldn't help thinking that this whole deal could have been stopped way before hand, if she had just opened up. He didn't mean to sound like a smart ass, right now not even like her boss. He just wanted her to acknowledge the fact that he…and the team would have given everything to protect her from her past. Emily had known that he would play this card. She gently placed her right arm on the armrest and leaned her head on her fist. Smiling sadly at Hotch she said: "Well played, Hotch. You know that it would never have been that easy. You had nothing to do with this. I wanted it to stay that way. This is not the kind of case where I ask for some leeway to check out what happened to my friend, Aaron." They fell into a deep silence, each contemplating their own thoughts. Hotch understood Emily. He would have done the exact same thing if he would have been the target. To save his family. Of course one could say that Foyets case was identical, but it was the team's case that turned personal. Not the other way around. Emily broke through his thoughts: "Lauren Reynolds was a part of me that died many years ago. Long before the BAU. It should never have come back to compromise what I had worked so hard for."_ But it did, just like all my other demons before. _But those demons belonged to her, they had made who she had become. Lauren Reynolds was just an identity, nothing more. An identity, that had left scars. Literally.

**TBC **


End file.
